UX/UI Delivery Lead

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: UX/UI Delivery Lead

Company: Manulife

Location: Makati City, Philippines

Job Type: FULL_TIME

Category: UX/UI Design Operations

Date Posted: 2025-09-18

Experience Level: Senior (10+ years)

Remote Status: Hybrid

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead and mentor a team of UX/UI designers to deliver high-quality, user-centered digital solutions aligned with business objectives and technical feasibility.

• Drive the application of regional design strategies to local contexts, ensuring scalable and user-centric product development.

• Collaborate intimately with cross-functional teams (product management, engineering, CX, service design) to translate user research, pain points, and insights into actionable design strategies and high-fidelity prototypes.

• Champion design thinking, systems thinking, and data-informed decision-making to solve complex business and user challenges, ensuring design outputs reflect brand identity and business value.

📝 Enhancement Note: While the title is UX/UI Delivery Lead, the responsibilities heavily lean into operational leadership of design execution and team management, making it a crucial role within the broader GTM and product operations framework. The emphasis on translating regional strategies to local contexts and ensuring quality assurance points to a strong operational delivery component.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Lead the design team in delivering high-quality, user-centered solutions across various digital platforms, ensuring strong alignment with strategic business goals and technical feasibility.

• Provide expert guidance, mentorship, and professional development to design team members, fostering an environment for impactful design outcomes and career growth.

• Effectively manage and allocate design resources across multiple concurrent projects, meticulously balancing priorities, timelines, and stakeholder expectations.

• Collaborate closely with key stakeholders, including product managers, engineering leads, and business units, to define problem statements, validate hypotheses, and translate insights into actionable design strategies and roadmaps.

• Utilize design thinking, systems thinking, and data-informed decision-making to solve complex business and user challenges, ensuring that design solutions are holistic and effective.

• Ensure all design outputs consistently reflect the company’s brand identity, maintaining a high standard of quality and consistency across all digital touchpoints and user journeys.

• Facilitate seamless cross-functional collaboration with engineering, product management, CX, and service design teams, proactively resolving challenges through clear communication, shared understanding, and collaborative problem-solving.

• Champion a culture of innovation within the design team, encouraging the exploration of smart risks and new ideas that push the boundaries of user experience and interface design.

• Oversee the quality of design delivery through structured Quality Assurance (QA) checkpoints and iterative feedback loops, ensuring adherence to regional design standards and stakeholder expectations.

• Translate and adapt regional design standards and best practices into clear execution guidance for local design teams (MITDC), ensuring consistency, scalability, and brand integrity across diverse markets.

• Proactively identify and escalate delivery risks, misalignments, and project blockers early in the design process, ensuring smooth progress and maintaining stakeholder alignment.

• Facilitate critical design review milestones, consolidating feedback from various regions and markets to drive continuous improvement in design processes and outcomes.

• Own the end-to-end design execution across local (MITDC) and regional teams, coordinating comprehensive review checkpoints and ensuring timely, high-quality delivery of design assets and specifications.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a blend of strategic design leadership and operational execution management. Key operational aspects include resource management, cross-functional collaboration facilitation, quality assurance oversight, and the critical task of translating regional standards into local execution, which is a core competency in global design operations.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education:

Experience:

• Minimum of 10 years of dedicated experience in User Experience (UX) design, with a proven track record of designing complex, end-to-end digital solutions.

• At least 3 years of experience in leading and mentoring design teams, demonstrating the ability to guide team members and foster high-quality design outputs.

• Extensive experience in Human-Centered Design (HCD) processes, encompassing user research methodologies, usability testing, and adherence to accessibility standards (e.g., WCAG).

• Demonstrated ability to manage and oversee the delivery of qualified design outputs that clearly reflect business value objectives and meet defined business requirements.

Required Skills:

• User Experience (UX) Design: Deep understanding and practical application of UX principles, methodologies, and best practices.

• User Interface (UI) Design: Expertise in creating intuitive, engaging, and visually appealing user interfaces across various digital platforms (mobile, tablet, desktop).

• Design Thinking: Proficient in applying design thinking frameworks to identify user needs, ideate solutions, prototype, and test concepts.

• Systems Thinking: Ability to understand and design within complex systems, considering interdependencies and holistic impact.

• Mentorship & Leadership: Proven ability to guide, mentor, and develop a team of designers, fostering professional growth and high performance.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Strong ability to work effectively with product management, engineering, marketing, and other business units.

• Problem Solving: Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, with a focus on addressing the root causes of challenges through effective and holistic solutions.

• Communication Skills: Excellent command of spoken and written English, with strong persuasive and presentation abilities to effectively communicate design concepts and rationale.

• Quality Assurance (QA) for Design: Experience in overseeing design delivery quality through structured QA checkpoints and feedback loops.

• Market & Design Trends: Understanding of current market and design language trends, and the ability to leverage this insight to optimize design direction.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience with design systems and component libraries.

• Proficiency in industry-standard design and prototyping tools (e.g., Figma, Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite).

• Familiarity with agile development methodologies.

• Experience in the financial services or insurance industry.

• Knowledge of user research tools and techniques.

📝 Enhancement Note: The requirements emphasize a senior-level individual contributor with strong leadership capabilities, bridging design strategy with operational delivery. The explicit mention of leading design teams, overseeing QA, and translating regional standards points to a role with significant operational responsibilities within the design function.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Demonstrate a strong portfolio showcasing complex digital design solutions across mobile, tablet, and desktop platforms, highlighting the entire Human-Centered Design (HCD) process from research to final delivery.

• Include case studies that clearly articulate the problem statement, your role, the design process followed, key challenges overcome, and the measurable impact of your solutions.

• Showcase examples of successfully translating user insights and business requirements into tangible, high-fidelity prototypes and final design assets.

• Evidence of experience in implementing and maintaining design systems, ensuring consistency and scalability across multiple products and platforms.

Process Documentation:

• Provide examples or descriptions of how you have established and managed design workflows, including user research planning, wireframing, prototyping, usability testing, and design QA processes.

• Showcase experience in documenting design specifications, style guides, and design system guidelines to ensure clarity and consistency for development teams.

• Illustrate your approach to facilitating design reviews, consolidating feedback from diverse stakeholders, and driving iterative improvements within the design lifecycle.

• Demonstrate how you have translated regional design standards into actionable execution guidance for local teams, ensuring consistency and scalability.

📝 Enhancement Note: For a leadership role in design operations, the portfolio should not only display design excellence but also robust process management capabilities. This includes showcasing how design is delivered efficiently, consistently, and with clear impact, emphasizing process documentation and the ability to operationalize design strategies.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range:

Benefits:

• Comprehensive health insurance package, including medical, dental, and vision coverage.

• Retirement savings plan or company-sponsored pension fund.

• Paid time off, including vacation leave, sick leave, and potentially personal or wellness days.

• Opportunities for professional development, including training programs, workshops, conferences, and access to online learning platforms.

• Hybrid work arrangement, offering flexibility between working from home and the office.

• Employee assistance programs (EAP) for mental health and well-being support.

• Potential for performance-based bonuses or incentives.

• Life insurance coverage.

Working Hours:

• The standard full-time working hours are likely around 40 hours per week, typical for a leadership role in the Philippines. However, the hybrid work arrangement suggests flexibility in scheduling, allowing for a balance between in-office collaboration and remote work. Specific daily hours may vary based on project needs and team coordination.

📝 Enhancement Note: Salary estimations are based on available market data for senior design leadership roles in the Philippines, considering the company's industry and size. Benefits are standard for a multinational corporation of Manulife's caliber, with a focus on employee well-being and professional growth, which are crucial for retaining talent in operations and design leadership.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Financial Services (Insurance, Investments, Banking)

Company Size: Manulife is a large, multinational corporation, employing tens of thousands of people globally. This scale offers stability, extensive resources, and opportunities for broad impact and career mobility. For operations professionals, this means working within established frameworks, potentially complex systems, and a diverse, global workforce.

Founded: 1887. With a long history, Manulife has a stable foundation and a wealth of experience in the financial services sector, adapting through various economic cycles. This history suggests a culture that values experience, stability, and long-term vision, while also needing to innovate to stay competitive.

Team Structure:

• The UX/UI Delivery Lead will be part of the MITDC (Manulife IT Development Center) design team, which is within the broader Asia Segment Experience Design community. This indicates a matrixed reporting structure where the lead manages a local team while being part of a larger regional design function.

• The role involves direct management and mentorship of UX/UI designers, reporting to a higher-level design director or head of experience design within the Asia segment or MITDC.

Methodology:

• The team likely employs Human-Centered Design (HCD) principles as a core methodology, emphasizing user research, empathy, and iterative design.

• Design decisions are expected to be data-informed, utilizing insights from user research, analytics, and stakeholder feedback to drive product improvements and strategy.

• Agile methodologies are likely integrated into the design and development process, ensuring adaptability, rapid iteration, and efficient delivery.

• Systems thinking is encouraged to address complex challenges holistically, ensuring design solutions are integrated and scalable within Manulife's broader ecosystem.

Company Website: https://www.manulife.com/en/about/our-story.html

📝 Enhancement Note: Manulife's status as a large, established financial institution implies a structured environment with a focus on governance, compliance, and robust processes, which is typical for operations roles in this sector. The emphasis on innovation and user-centricity suggests a dynamic approach within this structured framework.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role is positioned at a senior or lead level within the design operations function. It requires not only deep expertise in UX/UI design but also significant experience in team leadership, project management, and process optimization. The focus is on enabling the successful execution of design strategies and ensuring the quality and consistency of design outputs across multiple projects and potentially markets.

Reporting Structure: The UX/UI Delivery Lead will likely report to a Director or Head of Experience Design within the Asia Segment or the MITDC. They will directly manage a team of UX/UI designers and work closely with Product Managers, Engineering Leads, and other stakeholders across various departments, including GTM functions that rely on well-designed digital products.

Operations Impact: The role's impact is significant, directly influencing the quality and user-centricity of Manulife's digital products. By leading design delivery, ensuring adherence to standards, and fostering team growth, this role contributes to enhanced customer satisfaction, improved user engagement, increased conversion rates, and ultimately, the achievement of business objectives. Effective design operations are critical for efficient product development cycles and successful Go-To-Market (GTM) strategies.

Growth Opportunities:

• Leadership Progression: Potential to advance into more senior leadership roles, such as Head of UX/UI Design for a specific region or product vertical, or Director of Experience Design.

• Specialization: Opportunity to deepen expertise in specific areas like design systems management, user research leadership, or accessibility advocacy.

• Cross-functional Exposure: Gain broader experience by collaborating on strategic initiatives with product management, marketing, and business development teams.

• Global Mobility: As a multinational company, there may be opportunities for international assignments or collaborations with design teams in other regions.

• Skill Development: Access to Manulife's learning and development resources to enhance leadership, project management, and technical design skills.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is a critical operational hub for the design function, blending creative leadership with the practical execution required to bring digital products to market. Growth opportunities are tied to demonstrating strong operational delivery and strategic impact within the design organization.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Manulife operates modern office spaces designed to foster collaboration and productivity. As a hybrid role, employees will spend a portion of their week in the office and the remainder working remotely. The office environment is likely equipped with collaborative workspaces, meeting rooms, and the necessary technology to support team interactions.

Office Location(s): The primary office location is the Manulife Philippines Head Office in Makati City, a major central business district in Metro Manila, Philippines. This location offers accessibility and is situated within a hub of corporate activity.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Environment: Expect a workspace that encourages teamwork, with designated areas for group discussions, brainstorming sessions, and project work. This is crucial for the cross-functional collaboration inherent in this role.

• Technology & Tools: The office will be equipped with standard office technology, high-speed internet, and potentially advanced AV equipment for presentations and remote meetings, supporting efficient design operations.

• Team Interaction: Opportunities for regular face-to-face interaction with local design team members, product managers, and other stakeholders, fostering strong working relationships and facilitating real-time problem-solving.

Work Schedule:

• The work schedule is hybrid, meaning a mix of in-office and remote work. While the core working hours are typically 40 hours per week, the hybrid nature allows for some flexibility in managing personal schedules around core collaboration times and project deadlines. This flexibility is beneficial for operations roles that often require focused work periods.

📝 Enhancement Note: The hybrid work model is a key aspect of the work environment, requiring strong self-management and communication skills, essential for any operations role managing distributed teams or projects.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A recruiter or HR representative will likely conduct an initial screening to assess basic qualifications, experience, and cultural fit.

• Hiring Manager Interview: An interview with the hiring manager (likely a Director of Design or similar) to delve deeper into experience, leadership style, and understanding of design operations. Prepare to discuss your approach to team management and design delivery.

• Portfolio Presentation & Case Study: This is a critical stage where you will present your portfolio, likely focusing on 1-2 key case studies that demonstrate your leadership, problem-solving skills, and impact. Be ready to walk through your process, design decisions, and team management strategies.

• Cross-functional Stakeholder Interviews: Interviews with key stakeholders from Product Management, Engineering, or other relevant departments to evaluate collaboration skills, communication effectiveness, and ability to align design with business needs.

• Final Interview: Potentially an interview with a senior leader within the organization to finalize the decision and discuss overall fit.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Curate for Impact: Select case studies that best highlight your leadership in design delivery, problem-solving, and impact on business outcomes. Focus on projects where you led a team or significantly influenced design execution.

• Structure Your Narrative: For each case study, clearly outline the problem, your role, the process (including team involvement), key challenges, solutions, and quantifiable results. Emphasize your leadership in driving the process and ensuring quality.

• Highlight Operational Aspects: Showcase how you managed resources, facilitated collaboration, ensured quality through QA, and translated regional standards. Demonstrate your ability to operationalize design effectively.

• Be Prepared for Questions: Anticipate questions about your leadership philosophy, how you handle design disagreements, your process for managing multiple projects, and how you measure design success.

• Showcase Your Team's Work: While focusing on your leadership, be prepared to discuss the contributions of your team members and how you empowered them.

Challenge Preparation:

• You might be given a hypothetical design challenge or asked to critique an existing digital product. Prepare to apply your design thinking and systems thinking skills.

• Focus on articulating your thought process clearly, demonstrating how you would approach problem-solving, collaborate with stakeholders, and ensure the delivery of a high-quality solution.

• Practice presenting your thoughts concisely and persuasively, as if explaining your strategy to a cross-functional team.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process for a lead role will heavily scrutinize both design craft and operational leadership. A strong, well-articulated portfolio that showcases process management and team enablement is essential.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Design & Prototyping: Figma (highly likely as industry standard), Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, XD). Proficiency in at least one primary tool is essential, with familiarity across others being a plus.

• Collaboration & Communication: Microsoft Teams, Slack, Zoom, Confluence, Jira. Essential for cross-functional teamwork and project management.

• Design Systems: Tools for managing and documenting design systems (e.g., Zeroheight, Storybook).

Analytics & Reporting:

• Web Analytics Platforms (e.g., Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics) for understanding user behavior.

• Product Analytics Tools (e.g., Mixpanel, Amplitude) for deeper user journey analysis.

• User Feedback Platforms (e.g., Hotjar, UserTesting.com) for qualitative insights.

CRM & Automation:

• While not directly managed by this role, awareness of CRM systems (e.g., Salesforce) and marketing automation platforms is beneficial for understanding how user data flows and how design impacts customer journeys managed by GTM teams.

• Project Management Software (e.g., Asana, Trello, Monday.com) for task management and workflow tracking.

📝 Enhancement Note: Proficiency in modern design tools like Figma is paramount. Understanding how design integrates with analytics, CRM, and project management tools is crucial for demonstrating operational awareness and impact.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• User-Centricity: A deep commitment to understanding and serving the needs of the end-user, ensuring that design decisions are always grounded in user empathy and research.

• Collaboration: A strong belief in teamwork and cross-functional partnership, fostering an environment where diverse perspectives are valued and integrated to achieve common goals.

• Quality & Consistency: Dedication to maintaining high standards of design execution, ensuring brand consistency and a seamless user experience across all touchpoints.

• Data-Driven Decision Making: An approach that emphasizes using data and insights from research and analytics to inform design strategies and measure impact.

• Innovation & Continuous Improvement: Encouraging experimentation, learning from failures, and actively seeking ways to enhance design processes and user experiences.

• Accountability: Taking ownership of design delivery, from concept to execution, ensuring projects are completed on time and to specification.

Collaboration Style:

• Proactive Engagement: Actively seeking out collaboration opportunities with product, engineering, marketing, and other GTM teams to ensure design is integrated early and effectively.

• Open Communication: Fostering transparent and honest communication, encouraging constructive feedback exchange within the design team and with cross-functional partners.

• Shared Ownership: Promoting a sense of shared responsibility for product success, where design is seen as a critical partner in achieving business objectives.

• Process Alignment: Working to align design processes with broader product development and GTM workflows to ensure smooth handoffs and efficient execution.

📝 Enhancement Note: The values and collaboration style emphasize a team that is not only skilled in design but also operationally efficient, communicative, and integrated with the broader business objectives.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Balancing Regional vs. Local Needs: Effectively translating overarching regional design strategies into locally relevant and impactful solutions for diverse user segments within the Philippines.

• Cross-Functional Alignment: Ensuring consistent understanding and buy-in on design direction and priorities across various departments (product, engineering, marketing, business) which may have competing objectives.

• Resource Management: Effectively allocating design resources across a portfolio of projects with varying priorities and timelines, ensuring optimal utilization and timely delivery.

• Maintaining Design Quality at Scale: Upholding high standards of design craft and user experience across numerous digital products and features as the company grows and evolves.

• Adapting to Evolving Technologies: Staying abreast of new design tools, methodologies, and emerging technologies to ensure Manulife's digital offerings remain competitive and innovative.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Advanced Design Leadership Training: Access to programs focused on strategic thinking, team leadership, and operational management within design functions.

• Industry Conferences & Workshops: Opportunities to attend leading UX/UI and design operations conferences to gain insights into best practices and emerging trends.

• Mentorship Programs: Participation in mentorship initiatives, either as a mentee to gain guidance from senior leaders or as a mentor to develop leadership skills.

• Cross-functional Project Exposure: Involvement in strategic projects that offer exposure to different business areas, enhancing understanding of the broader company objectives and GTM strategies.

• Formal Certifications: Pursuing certifications in areas like Agile methodologies, project management, or specialized design disciplines.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges highlight common operational hurdles in large organizations, such as aligning diverse stakeholder needs and managing complex workflows. The growth opportunities are geared towards developing a well-rounded operations leader.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe your approach to leading a design team through a complex product development cycle, from initial concept to final launch. How do you ensure quality and timely delivery?" (Focus on process, collaboration, and QA).

• "How do you balance the implementation of regional design standards with the need for local customization and user relevance?" (Highlight your operationalization strategy).

• "Walk me through a time you had to resolve a significant design disagreement between stakeholders or team members. What was your process, and what was the outcome?" (Demonstrate conflict resolution and stakeholder management).

Company & Culture Questions:

• "What interests you about Manulife and our mission?" (Research Manulife's values, recent initiatives, and financial services context).

• "How do you foster a collaborative and innovative culture within a design team?" (Relate to your leadership style and team management approach).

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Tell a Story: Frame your portfolio presentations as narratives that clearly articulate the problem, your strategic approach, the execution process, and the measurable impact.

• Quantify Your Impact: Whenever possible, use data and metrics to demonstrate the success of your design solutions (e.g., increased conversion rates, reduced error rates, improved task completion times).

• Showcase Leadership & Process: Emphasize your role in leading the team, managing the design process, facilitating collaboration, and ensuring quality through QA.

• Be Prepared for Deep Dives: Anticipate detailed questions about your design decisions, the trade-offs you made, and how you involved and managed your team and stakeholders.

• Connect to Manulife: Where possible, subtly connect your experience and approach to Manulife's known values or business areas.

📝 Enhancement Note: Interview preparation should focus on demonstrating not just design skill, but also operational acumen, leadership capability, and a strategic understanding of how design contributes to business success within a large organization.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this UX/UI Delivery Lead position:

• Submit your application through the provided link on the Manulife careers portal.

• Tailor Your Resume: Customize your resume to highlight your experience in leading design teams, managing design delivery, cross-functional collaboration, and implementing design processes. Use keywords from the job description such as "UX/UI Delivery," "Design Leadership," "Human-Centered Design," "Systems Thinking," and "Quality Assurance."

• Prepare Your Portfolio: Curate a portfolio that showcases your most impactful work, focusing on case studies that demonstrate your leadership in design execution, problem-solving, and team management. Ensure it clearly articulates your process and the results achieved. Be ready to present specific examples related to the responsibilities outlined.

• Research Manulife: Familiarize yourself with Manulife's products, services, company values, and recent news. Understand their position in the financial services market and their commitment to customer experience.

• Practice Your Narrative: Prepare concise and compelling answers to common interview questions, particularly those related to leadership, problem-solving, and collaboration, using the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result). Rehearse your portfolio presentation to ensure a smooth and impactful delivery.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.

---